Mark is an award-winning journalist who worked at 9to5Mac for over six years. He covers Apple and other topics related to the consumer technology industry.
Noted jailbreak and App Store application developer Adam Bell added another great tweak to his arsenal: Overflow. The jailbreak-only adjustment brings the Cover Flow effect (like swiping through album covers when rotating the iPhone) to the iOS home screen’s application dock. As you can see in the video after the break, it works great with Chpwn’s Infinidock tweak —an alteration to iOS that allows users to store an infinite amount of apps in the dock. Bell’s tweak costs $0.99 in the Cydia store, and it works on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. You can watch a video of the tweak in action after the break:
Just two days before Apple’s education focused event in New York City, The Wall Street Journalreported that Apple’s vice president of the iWork suite of productivity applications is heading up the development of Apple’s entry into the textbook market. Rosner, an Apple veteran, oversees the development of the Pages, Keynote, and Numbers Mac applications, and most recently, has been heading up the iOS variants of the three Apple productivity applications.
Rosner works under Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, perhaps predicting Rosner’s continued work in the cloud space. In June, Rosner gave Apple cofounder Steve Jobs a hand on stage by demoing Apple’s iCloud Documents in the Cloud storage feature. The feature, unlike a simple “hard disk in the sky” is integrated into iWork for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and keeps iWork files in sync. For example, if a person changes something on their iPhone, the changes will automatically and quickly sync to the user’s other devices…
Long before Eddy Cue was brought into the spotlight with his promotion to senior vice president of Internet software and service at Apple, the Duke-graduate had a major role under Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. Adam Lashinsky’s Inside Apple (available January 25) profiles Cue as Apple’s “dealmaking executive.”
Cue has been at Apple in several capacities over the past several years, and he has been cutting deals with music labels for iTunes, and most recently the music based services under iCloud. He also actually led initial iPhone discussions with AT&T. Famously, Cue was personally handed responsibility of the failing MobileMe team a few years ago, a move that defines Cue as Jobs’ problem solver.
Now, as a senior vice president, Cue is in charge of the iTunes Store, iBookstore, App Store, iCloud services, the iWork suite of applications, iAd, and more. Cue was on stage alongside Steve Jobs at WWDC 2011 to introduce iTunes in the Cloud and Photo Stream —two of Jobs’ favorite iCloud services, according to his keynote presentation. Cue was also on hand at Apple’s Oct. 4, 2011 “Let’s Talk iPhone” event to share more details on iCloud and its integration with Apple’s latest handset, the iPhone 4S.
As Apple’s dealmaker, Cue is likely the man in charge of striking deals with movie labels, television networks, cable providers, and more for the long-rumored Apple television set.
Apple, effective today, ended its buy a Mac, get a $100 off of a printer promotion. The promotion typically runs yearly, so we are not sure why Apple stopped it. Apple sells a few $100 printers, so they typically advertise the promotion as “Buy a Mac, get a free printer.”
Although Apple is putting a stop to the program, they will continue to sell printers in their physical retail stores and online stores, according to the internal memo posted above. Customers who bought a printer within 90 days of Jan. 16 can still claim their $100 rebate from Apple.
Bloomberg reported that the iPad 3 entered production and is tracking a March launch. The report also claimed the new iPad will feature a higher-resolution display, Retina probably, and a quad-core processor. It will also connect to LTE networks.
The company’s manufacturing partners in Asia started ramping up production of the iPad 3 this month and plan to reach full volumes by February, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public. The tablet will use a quad-core chip, an enhancement that lets users jump more quickly between applications, two of the people said.
The iPad 3 was previously reported to sport a similar design to the iPad 2. We also previously discovered references to quad-core iOS devices in the latest iOS betas.
The details are not out, but Kodak filed another patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit is said to cover four patent infringements by Apple, and we will update once the details arrive. Bloomberg reported the following:
Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) sued Apple Inc. (AAPL), claiming the iPhone and iPad maker is infringing four of its patents. The lawsuit was filed today in a federal court in Rochester, New York, where Kodak is based.
The iOS 5.1 beta 3 is apparently lacking new features or exciting hints at the future of iOS devices, but we have discovered something potentially major: Siri Dictation references. Our own tipster Sonny Dickson was looking through the iOS 5.1 beta 3 settings application on the iPad and discovered a new section in the keyboard menu called “About Privacy and Dictation.” When opened, as shown above, the iPad provides the user with the standard legal literature and feature information for Siri Dictation.
Dictation is not actually functional on the iPad 2 running iOS 5.1 beta 3, so perhaps this will be an iOS 5.1 launch feature for the iPad, or it may be an iPad 3-exclusive feature; a similar process to the iPhone 4S exclusively gaining Siri and Siri Dictation support in iOS 5.0. We’re also hearing this link/document is also appearing on retina iPod touches as well.
On the iPhone 4S, Apple does not have a specific menu related to “Dictation and Privacy” in the keyboard settings panel. That literature is reserved exclusively for the Siri preferences under general settings and covers both Dictation and Siri. This may weaken concerns that this new iPad Dictation menu is simply carried over code from the iPhone 4S. This also may mean that the iPad’s Siri support could be limited to Siri Dictation, but that is pure speculation. Separately, we heard months ago that Apple was internally prototyping a version of the full Siri experience for the iPad, but have not heard any new developments since.
Speed increases are an expected part of Apple’s iOS device hardware upgrades, but what Apple has up their sleeves for speed enhancements is typically up for debate. The first-generation iPad clocked around 1GHz with the single core A4 processor, and —a year later—Apple bumped the iPad’s chip to dual-core-speed with the A5 processor. While not quite confirming that a quad-core processor will power Apple’s third-generation iPad, we have obtained evidence that suggests Apple is currently working on quad-core iOS devices.
Hidden deep inside the latest iOS 5.1 beta is updated processing-core management software that not only supports the dual-core processing enabled by the A5 iPhone and iPad chip, but also quad-core processing. The references to quad-core iPhone and iPad chips come by way of a hidden panel that describes cores that are supported by iOS device hardware. The updated core management software includes an option of “/cores/core.3,” and this represents a fourth available processing core… more details after the break:
iLounge‘s Jeremy Horwitz tweeted multiple details from sources regarding the next iPad. First, the next-generation iPad is said to be getting heavy improvements on the camera side. The front camera will reportedly become a FaceTime HD camera and the back camera is supposedly in line with either the iPhone 4 or 4S (based on lens size). 9to5Mac independently heard that Apple was prototyping next-generation iPads with eight megapixel sensors during the last summer, but this, of course, could have changed by now.
Horwitz again reaffirmed his earlier claims that the next-generation iPad will be close to 1MM thicker to make room for new parts, and he said: “Curve radiuses on the body will change only a little to accommodate the added thickness, not dramatically. Think iPad 2 Pro, not a redesign.” In terms of a release date, Horwitz’s sources are calling for a launch close to when the iPad 2 launched. That would be early March. Finally, the iPad 2 is said to stick around $399, finally turning the iPad into a product lineup with multiple models. The iPad 3 has also been long rumored to contain a Retina Display.
An odd application made its way onto the iPhone App Store called “GameStore” a few days ago. The application was deemed an Apple internal testing tool for their iOS in-app-purchase system, and the June 2009 date -the month of the event in which in-app-purchase was formally announced- on the application’s store page seems to affirm that.
You recently purchase the GameStore app. The app was made available for sale prematurely. We apologize for the problem and have refunded the purchase amount back to your account. These funds will be applied to your original payment method within 5 business days.
The application was quickly removed from the App Store, and today, buyers were informed that refunds for the application were issued to their iTunes accounts. Interestingly, Apple noted that the “GameStore” application went live on the App Store “prematurely.” We do not want to read too much into Apple announcing this GameStore application was publicly released early, especially because of the June 2009 date attached to the application, but one can infer that it is an App Store dedicated to gaming software.
Apple announced that it will announce the company’s 2012 first-quarter financial results on Tuesday, Jan. 24. The call will cover financial information from the past quarter, a quarter in which we saw the the release of the widely popular iPhone 4S in addition to Apple’s new softwares iCloud and iOS 5. Breakthrough information in regards to Apple’s future product plans rarely slips out, but the results should still be interesting.
As per past calls, the announcement will begin at 2 p.m. Pacific / 5 p.m. Eastern time. Anyone can listen into the call through Apple’s investor website, but Quicktime player is required. Apple will post a press release that details their Q1 2012 financial results and will also likely —as they typically do— hold a question-and-answer session with company executives. We will provide live coverage of the proceedings.
Apple is rumored to be holding a late January media event to discuss advancements to its iBooks platform. Apple, in the past, has held events either close before or close after conference calls, so do not be surprised to see Apple’s event happen around Jan. 24.
Following multiple reports claiming that Apple is holding an event later this month to discuss new media-related services, Clayton Morris shared some tidbits that he has heard from sources. First, Morris claims he heard about the event in September 2011 and the event was originally scheduled for late 2011. Morris said the event has been long in the making and the announcements were close to Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs. Morris again affirmed that we will not be seeing hardware at the event and he expects two “large projects” relating to education to be announced.
We have independently heard that the iTunes team is on “lockdown mode” ahead of the announcements, which have been delayed before as also reported by Morris. This affirms that whatever Apple announces will be connected to iTunes in some fashion. Keep in mind the iTunes team runs the actual iTunes Store, the App Store, and the iBookstore.
Update: MacRumors reported that Apple has filmed promotional interviews with executives from the textbook publishing industry, possibly affirming that this upcoming event will focus on digital textbooks. They noted that while these interviews have indeed been worked on, there is no confirmation that they relate to this upcoming event.
Update 2: Goodereader claimed that Apple will be launching an iTunes self-publishing service with the EPUB format… Expand Expanding Close
AllThingsD reported that Apple is planning an event for late January to be held in New York, not in Cupertino or San Francisco, Calif. The event will not be huge nor will it cover any iPad or Apple TV related announcements.
But, for sure, several sources underscored that the event is not related to an upcoming version of the iPad 3, the next iteration of the popular tablet device that many expect to be available in 2012. Also unlikely,?the rollout of Apple’s large-scale rethinking of its interactive television initiative currently in the works. While the company is expected to launch a new Apple TV product later in 2012, such an event would also certainly be held in the heart of the industry in Hollywood or at least in Silicon Valley. That leaves some kind of advertising or even publishing announcement…
Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Services and Software Eddy Cue is said to be involved in the event, and the event is reportedly “media-related.” On a side note, Apple has an office for their iAd business in New York, the business that Cue is now in heading.
We broke the news yesterday that developers Steven Troughton-Smith and the TheMudKip were working on bringing iOS applications to the Apple TV in a native experience. We have been updating with the developer’s progress since our initial report, but now a major leap was achieved: full-screen applications. Troughton-Smith was awesome enough to exclusively pass on the images (above and below) of full-screen applications in action.
The port was initially able to run multiple applications side-by-side on a display connected to an Apple TV, but now the developers have figured out a way to run iPad applications —because of the artwork resolution— at a full 720p resolution. The possibilities of what applications can do at the full television resolution on an Apple TV seems endless, and the two types of application presentations (side-by-side and full screen) show the versatility of this application porting.
Since the developers have achieved this feat by rewriting the springboard itself, we will surely see some more innovation as their work progresses. As Troughton-Smith posted on Twitter: “Remember how the unofficial iPhone applications back in ‘07 forced Apple’s hand in creating an App Store? I’d like Apple TV to get the same treatment.” However, we hope this becomes something more than just an unofficial tweak.
Video of iOS apps running side-by-side on Apple TV.
Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has been working with a developer named TheMudKip to add iOS application functionality to the Apple TV. The tweaking is still in its early stages, but the concept of running applications was at least proven. In order to accomplish the task of running iOS applications on the Apple TV, the software that powers the app launcher, the iOS Springboard, had to be rewritten.
Rewriting the springboard also allowed for another neat, new feature: side-by-side apps. This concept was demonstrated as early as WWDC 2011 on an iPad, but is much more powerful and important on a device like an Apple TV. One can imagine opening several news applications to have a big view of what is going on in the world, or having different chat applications for different services simultaneously in use. We will update on the progress of this hack as more information comes in. More images after the break:
Apple’s Senior Vice President of Design Jonathan Ive can add a new title to his resume: Sir Jonathan Ive. According to BBC, Ive was granted knighthood in the United Kingdom in the New Year Honours List. The report said that Ive’s official title is a Knight Commander of the British Empire. Ive, who was born and raised in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States to pursue design work, said that the honor is “absolutely thrilling.”
Ive credits his home country for some of his incredible design work: “I am keenly aware that I benefit from a wonderful tradition in the U.K. of designing and making.” While Ive has had an extremely successful career in Cupertino, California as Apple’s design chief, recent rumors said the designer of the iPod, iMac, iPhone, and most recently the iPad, was considering a move back to the United Kingdom. Soon after those rumors, a reliable report claimed Ive would not be leaving…
I have been using the Otterbox Defender case for the iPhone 4S for a couple of months now and it is one of the most versatile and most protective pieces of phone protection currently on the market. The outer design of the case, what you and others see, is an apparently rubberized material – but do not be deceived by that soft appearance and soft feel. It is a heavy-duty case that does a fantastic job at protecting your phone.
The Defender is a three-layered case. The first layer is an inner plastic shell that you slide your phone into, and this hard, yet lightweight, plastic protects your iPhone 4S from dents. That first layer is augmented with the rubbery layer that adds more protect against drops, but also protects against scratches. Its rubbery material makes sure that when your phone is dropped in any environment it is safe. The third layer is a belt clip that adds some more protection, but its main purpose is to, of course, allow you to wear your iPhone on your belt or clothing…
Popular developer of jailbreak applications chpwn released another powerful tweak for iOS users, this time an enhancement to the software’s multitasking feature. The tweak is called Zephyr and it brings new multitasking gestures that are inspired by Meego’s Swipe interface. The foundation of Meego-known for running on the now defunct Nokia N9-was the ability to maneuver around the operating system with edge swipes.
The Swipe navigation method was very smooth on the Nokia N9 and the port through Zephyr to iOS is just as handy. As you can see in the video above, a user just has to flick up from the bottom of their iOS device’s display to open the multitasking bar. In addition, you can swipe in from the edge-just the like the iPad on iOS 5, but one with one finger-to move between applications.
“I think this is probably the most efficient way to multitask on the iPhone,” said Grant Paul (chpwn) in his video demonstration of the tweak. From what we can see, we tend to agree. The tweak was inspired by a tweet from popular developer Steven Troughton-Smith from just a couple of week ago.
“iOS on the iPhone really needs edge-swipe multitasking gestures,” said Troughton-Smith. “Or similar. I’ve said this before. Anyone make a JB tweak for such?”
Zephyr is currently exclusive to jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches and the edge swipes are not currently customizable for features other than multitasking. Paul promises additional functionality through future updates. The tweak is currently available through the Cydia jailbreak application market for $2.99. For those interested in comparing Zephyr’s edge swiping to Meego’s, we have a video demonstration of the Meego interface navigation after the break.
Although Apple said iTunes Connect would be shut down from Dec. 22 until Dec. 29, Apple put the website back up today – one day early. iTunes Connect is the portal for Apple iOS and Mac developers where they can upload and submit new applications, make changes to their App Store pages, obtain promotional codes, check sales reports, and more.
Apple application developers typically see sales increases due to the jump in iOS device sales during the holidays. A report from yesterday claimed that Apple saw 12 times its typical iOS device activation statistic on Christmas Day alone.
Additionally, some developers have reported, in the last couple of days, that its price changes scheduled for Dec. 25 have started to appear. Price changes were delayed from appearing on Christmas Day, but have still begun appearing before Apple’s previously noted reopen date for App Store submissions and changes.
Facebook recently introduced a new feature for profiles called Timeline, and the social network giant describes it as “[telling] your life story with a new kind of profile.” The feature, as demonstrated for the web in Facebook’s promotional video shown above, places all of your photographs, interactions, status updates, and more on a timeline that starts from the day you were born.
The feature works great on the desktop web and mobile version of Facebook’s website, and now Facebook plans to bring Timeline to the iPad’s Facebook application. Timeline was supposed to come to the iPad in December, but the feature’s release was pushed back due to last minute bugs found during advanced testing. Facebook is now planning to launch the update between mid-January and late January.Read on to learn more about Timeline for iPad…
Employees throughout Apple were surprised this week with hoodies and some departments were even given personalized notes from higher-level staff. The hoodies are a nice holiday gesture from Apple to employees as a “thank you” for a great year of work. This thank you is, of course, in addition to the extra vacation time during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Update: It looks like one of the hoodies has made its way onto eBay. As of right now the bidding is currently at $285 USD and there is just over one day before the posting expires. Also included is a navy beanie with embroidered Apple logo. You can head over and bid on the eBay listing now.
The port mirrors all the iPhone 4S Siri functionality and works on the jailbroken iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, third generation iPod touch, fourth generation iPod touch, and first generation iPad. We previously revealed that iPod touch Siri performance is not on par with iPhone Siri performance due to the lower quality microphone system.
Spire is available free on the Cydia jailbroken application market, and the download comes in at approximately 100mb, according to a blog post from Chpwn. The developers recommend that users connect to a Wi-Fi network for downloading, not a standard cellular network, because of the large file size.
A few Siri ports have gone public through jailbreak application markets in the past few weeks, but they were deemed unsafe and illegal by the development community due to its distribution of Apple copyrighted materials.
“Spire uses a new method to obtain the files necessary for Siri, so it doesn’t have the copyright issues encountered by previous attempts,” said Chpwn
Of course, with any port of this kind, there will be a caveat: you have to still gain authorization through your own server and an iPhone 4S. Chpwn explained the issue:
The above image is a comparison of an iPad 2 home button and an iPad 3 home button. At the surface, not much as changed, but the prospects of some minor structural tweaks do hint at something greater. The iPad 3 home button, which has been handled in both black and white flavors, looks almost identical to the iPad 2 home button. However, the gray glyph representing the frame of a home screen application icon is slightly thicker. This, obviously, is not all the interesting…but we do learn a few things:
– The iPad 3 will likely come in both black and white-just like the iPad 2-if these iPad 3 home buttons pan out to be the ones used in the final.
– The buttons floating around right now-in large quantities-signal that the iPad 3 is either in production or close to the production stage
– The iPad 3 will not lose the home button (iOS devices have been rumored to soon be losing the home button).
Perhaps the most interesting part about the iPad 3 home button is that its internal structuring is smaller than the iPad 2’s connector (easy to tell in the comparison image above). Apple tweaking the home button structural design and making its size smaller may indicate that Apple is trying to make room for something else. The iPad 3 is already rumored to be nearly 1 mm thicker to accommodate a more pixel-dense Retina Display. Perhaps this slightly smaller home button is one method Apple is using to keep the extra thickness required to a minimum.
Power and volume rockers with a similar design to their iPad 2 counterparts are also floating around, perhaps hinting a minimal design changes. Stay tuned for more.
With the service launching in the United States last month, it may seem a little late, but Apple has very recently launched a website dedicated to iTunes Match. Previously, iTunes Match was given a slab of the iTunes in the Cloud website.
The new iTunes Match website is very descriptive and tries to clear up much of the confusion that has surrounded the product since its announcement. Apple thoroughly explains the basics of iTunes Match with a paragraph worded similarly to their previous literature on the subject:
With iTunes in the Cloud, the music you buy from the iTunes Store automatically appears on all your devices.1 And for music you haven’t purchased from iTunes, iTunes Match is the perfect solution. iTunes Match is built right into iTunes on your computer and the Music app on your iOS devices.2 It lets you store your entire collection in iCloud, even music you’ve imported from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes. When it’s in iCloud, it’s available on all your devices. So you can enjoy all your music anywhere, anytime — on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, or Apple TV.
The company then explains how the service works by detailing the song matching and uploading process. The new website, also spotted by AppleBitch, features a clear setup guide, FAQ, and walkthrough video – three things that publications have taken to themselves to create. Apple seemingly wanted to create their own so users have the clearest explanation possible directly from the company.
Apple also posted answers to frequently asked questions, settling the downloading vs. streaming debate, and clarifying other concerns such as what happens to songs when your one year iTunes Match subscription expires. Read on for the full FAQ and Apple-made iTunes Match walkthrough video.
